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Selection of Question and Answers — Special Issues

EVER-VICTORIOUS STRATEGY

Ryan free sparring with Sifu Angel at the Intensive Taijiquan Course in Sabah in 2016

Question

I had experienced how easily I could handle opponents half and a third my age who daily trained their fighting skills, that I was amazed. I can only imagine how effective I would be once I am able to master what Sifu will transmit on the Intensive Taijiquan Course in Sabah from 25th to 31st March 2016.

— Sifu Angel Perez Oliveras, Puerto Rico

Answer

Certainly it is not without good reasons why you were a sparring champion even before learning from me. You were calm, fast and powerful.

Now you are more calm, faster and more powerful, although you are already a grandfather, but I always marvel at how young you look despite your chorological age. Much credit must go to your qigong training. Your opponents who are half or a third your age would not be able to match you. But if you use Taijiquan techniques against them, they will suddenly become like children.

The secret is to train a Taijiquan combat sequence well and relentlessly apply this combat sequence on them, taking care of your own safety first. We shall have some practice of this strategy during the coming Taijiquan course.

There are four factors in the above strategy. One, you must have a suitable Taijiquan combat sequence, or any combat sequence from our school. Two, you must train this combat sequence well. Three, you must apply this combat sequence on your opponents. Four, you must cover yourself well to ensure safety first. Lacking in any one of the four factors will render the strategy ineffective.

If we have this ever-victorious strategy, why is it that some of our Shaolin Wahnam members who want to be combat efficient but could not beat other martial artists easily? It is because they fail in one or more of the second, third or fourth factor.

My minimum advice is for them to train a combat sequence 30 times a day every day for at least three months. They train 30 times a day for only a few days. Even when they have followed my training advice, when they meet other martial artists, they do not apply their trained combat sequence on them. They bounce about or use other martial art techniques in their sparring, sometimes without their conscious realising, and especially when their opponents rush at them indiscriminatingly. Even if they follow these second and third factors, they fail to cover themselves adequately. So, when their opponents hit them, they throw away all that they have trained and fight like children.

One main reason why they do not train as I have advised following the four factors, is that although they want to be combat efficient, they do not want it enough to put in the time and effort. To me this is reasonable, because although combat efficiency is important if they practice kungfu, it is not top in our priority. We prefer good health, vitality and longevity, and not winning trophies, and they have these benefits.

Are we not worried that others not in our school may steal this secret of ever-winning strategy if we openly mention it in our Question-Answer Series? No, we are not worried. If they are successful in applying this strategy in sparring, we are sincerely happy for them. In fact, they will be helping us to attain one of our aims, which is bringing back the glory and greatness of kungfu, even though they may not be members of Shaolin Wahnam.

However, it will be very difficult for them to achieve this aim. They may know the techniques of the strategy, but they don't have the skills, and they don't even know the difference between techniques and skills. In the Taijiquan course in Sabah, we shall not only revise these skills, but also learn other relevant skills as well as techniques, like what we would do if our opponents manage to fight back, or use other techniques not according to our trained routine.